Hatrick hero Sudheer stars in Karnataka’s victory

By Mohammed Rumman Khan | NT

When the right-back spends most of his time as a tireless, fleet-footed winger, it gives a fair idea about the game. Karnataka could afford such a luxury, and more, against a clueless Tamil Nadu on the first day of the Hero Santosh Trophy South Zone Group A qualifiers at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Tuesday.

Hosts Karnataka won 4-0 against Tamil Nadu in the opening match here. The star for Karnataka was Sudheer Kotikela who scored a hattrick in 42nd, 53rd, and 75th minutes. Thanks to Kamalesh.P. who broke the deadlock at the 11th minute. And since then there was no stopping them. Not only in the first half, they were ruthless after the interval, too.Karnataka, who have reached the semifinals in the last two editions, started as favorites to top the group and advance to the final round of the tournament to be played in Kerala.

For Namma boys, it was not just Sudheer who felt confident enough to leave his post in the backline and venture into the Tamil Nadu half with gay abandon, in fact, the entire players stood up to the vacation and kept the pressure throughout the game.

Tamil Nadu were lacking clearcut goalscoring opportunities, and they couldn’t convert any chances into goals. Thanks for the solid defence of K’taka. They were unable to make their possession count and as a result, couldn’t score a goal.On the other hand, Karnataka look well set to qualify once again for the final stage of the tournament, to be held in Kerala. On this day, it was just too good for Tamil Nadu, which was forced to defend its vulnerable goal almost right through the match.

K’taka have been grouped with Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Out of four teams, one will advance to the final stage, which will be held in Kerala. The matches are being played in a bio-bubble.

Later in the day, Telangana beat 4-0 against Andhra Pradesh. The stars for Telangana were, Yousuf Ali, Mohammed Imaduddin, and P.Joshua, who scored all-important goals for them.

The Results: Karnataka 4 ( Kamalesh.P- 11, Sudheer Kotikela- 42, 53 & 75) bt-TamilNadu-0. Telangana 4 (Yousuf Ali 16, Mohammed Imaduddin-71, 90+3, P.Joshua 87) bt Andhra Pradesh-0

Thursday’s matches: Andhra Pradesh vs Karnataka at 11.30 pm TamilNadu vs Telangana at 3.30 pm.